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Andersen Worldwide Starts to Crack
As International Partners Forsake It

Units in Hong Kong, China and Russia Plan to Defect;
U.S. Partners May Vote to Kill Ban on Taking Clients

By

Ken Brown, Cassell Bryan-Low, Carrick Mollenkamp and

Mitchell Pacelle Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal

Updated March 22, 2002 8:28 a.m. ET

Andersen Worldwide, which has taken decades to build one of the world's largest accounting networks, began to crack Thursday as partners in Hong Kong, China and Russia agreed to merge with rival firms.

The defections, which came as Andersen Worldwide's U.S. affiliate faces criminal obstruction-of-justice charges, dashed efforts to forge a broad deal for the Andersen's non-U.S. operations. Such an integrated network would have been more attractive in drawing clients among multinational corporations and could have been more valuable...